Hi I am Grace from Shenzhen China, I have just started blogging about what's going on here, especially its innovation and startup scene. People say Shenzhen its the "Silicon Valley" of China, in some ways yes. But Shenzhen is also very unique in that it's got a combination of vibes that no other city has. From the surface, hardware, manufacturing, innovation, entrepreneurship, finance seem to be Shenzhen's economic pillars, but I would like to dig deeper into the day-to-day life of the people here and get to the front line of the startups. I really want to communicate these things with the world because as far as I know, not much has been done or considered it to be a consistent effort. (There are though, great resources, videos, books written on related subjects, which I will share and do my comments later in this blog.)
On a more personal level, since the return, I haven't really practiced much my written English. So I would like to get some of that back by blogging things that I am interested in and most familiar with.
Before I moved to Shenzhen 5 years ago, I was a tech reporter in Chicago. Before that, I got my MS degree (Media Management) at Indiana University Bloomington and BA degree (Film Production) at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. In between those schools, I also lived in Philadephia for a year. That was really nice too. I really like those cities.
When I moved to Shenzhen in 2014, I was as a stranger as one can be. Compared to all the cities I lived in, Shenzhen was completely unique. The landscape, weather, demographic, speed, things people care about, ways they do business here etc. To be honest, I felt pretty lost, also adding the fact that China had advanced a great deal over the past five years. When I was in Beijing in 2009, we didn't have 4G, high-speed train, UBER/Didi, and the e-commerce frenzy Double Eleventh Day (AKA Single's Day).
But I had a strategy, which was to be accepted to a new environment, you first need to provide something, some value to the community. So I started attending some local English study groups, sharing my stories of studying in the U.S. It was all good times. The young people I met were enthusiastic and eager to learn. I started to feel I belong somewhere.
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